Prosperity Down

Lately, there are more and more stories saying that the standard of living for Americans are dropping and that our generation will have less than the previous generation for the first time in history. For me, I find it scary as hell to know that we as a society has apexed awhile back and now we are on a downward trend. I can see this happening through the eyes of my friends and family, the struggles and hardships that they have to endure to just make a living.

I truly wondering how this country is going to look like in a few years. There is rampant poverty and a disappearing middle class that awaits us in the near future. When this happens, there is going to be a cascading affect that forces more companies to layoff and exasperating the problem even further. I mean if people don't buy stuff from stores, companies can't keep their doors open and close eventually.

There is a lot of doom and gloom in this blog post, I admit to that, but there is something eerie about losing our existing standard of living forever. I am a believer that we will see a decline in our country and we will lose our first world status in the next decade. I just don't believe in the crazy fantasy that we will be okay and things will stay rosy and fine forever. I know many people that never give a moments pause to consider that we are in a slow decline. It is those people that will be completely caught off guard and suffer the worst.

I think that we must be at all times vigilant of what is going around in our local and global worlds. I am safe guarding myself by learning new skills and disciplines when I already have a primary job. This is not merely just a means to make more money, but it is also a way that I can be versatile and switch what I need to do at moments notice.

More than ever in history, no job is safe from being obsolete. I am downright terrified that we are mechanizing and computerizing everything at such a fast pace. That will displace millions of workers that used to have a relatively stable job in a good market. Those people that get laid off will be angry and frustrated that they can't get a similar job or another job with multiple years of schooling. So what do angry people do with a lot of time and backs against the wall do? Well, nothing good.

I can't predict the future but I do know that I must do everything that I can to keep my head above the water when the tide rises.

Discovery Human

I am always fascinated by what we can learn about ourselves through introspection and self awareness. It is a difficult process thqt takes up a huge chunk of time to do it properly. But if we do we find out that our lives are fuller and more complete then ever before. Now more than ever I think that we need to look inwards in a world that is more chaotic and turbulent. 

People always have told me that they are not sure of there path or direction in life. It is a growing problem that inhabits many 20somethings as they are navigating their lives. But I think that it is hard for them to decide on a path without truly knowing who they are. Confidence is borne out of knowing thy self and then being assured the what you are doing is the best decision. 

I have always thought about how to best improve myself and the first thing I do is to think about the actions that led me to my present location. It is not often a pleasant experience as there are plenty of bad decisions that's I have to relive though introspection. But by doing so it has made me conscious of the future decisions that look eerily like past mistakes and correct them. 

I don't believe it is necessarily for everyone as it does get time consuming and depressing on occasion. I mean it is really difficult to question some of the decisions and choices you made from an objective point of view. At the same time you have to be a contemplative state with very few distractions akin to mediation. 

The key is that we are better individuals for knowing why we do what we do. It helps us with future choices preventing past mistakes. It requires a lot of patience, understanding, and love from themselves to be able to accept their own errors in judgment. But if we do practice more introspection and self awareness then we might live happier lives.

Instant Gratification

We live in a world completely dominated by instant gratification, especially in American culture. Everything that we ever could want, with enough money of course, can be had with a few clicks of a button. Companies have made it incredibly easy for us to feed that desire for immediate satisfaction over the years. Consequently, delayed gratification has gone down as well as our savings in the pursuit of the newest and shiniest things. Nobody is immune to this, including myself, but if we are aware of our instant gratification tendencies then we are more likely to control them in the future.

When I was a kid, I loved new things, whether or not it was a toy or a snack; I was enamored with it. I remember asking my parents all the time if they could buy new things for me, it worked about 30% of the time. Although, I knew that my chances were low, I made up for it by asking them all the time (I mean, my probability stayed the same but their willpower didn't ;) ). This has somewhat extended itself into the present in the form of technology, with me wanting to obtain the latest and greatest games and apps. But now the only thing that gets in the way of me getting what I want isn't my parents, its money. I like most people, I only have a finite amount, but the things that I can potentially get are literally infinite.

From about the start of college onwards, I really had to tighten my belt and delay gratification. There were so many things that I wanted but couldn't afford so I had to save up for it most of the time. I made a choice to put those things that I wanted in the back of my mind until I had set my finances in shape. This obviously was a lot easier to say than to put into practice. What helped me was that my peers at the time were in the same situation so it was a lot easier to control spending whenever we went out. But on a whole this was time of my life was when I really bought into the idea of delay gratification and saving for the future.

Now, it is harder than ever to delay gratification, because of the area I live in. It is really hard to save when there are people that are to the left and right of you driving luxury cars and have the latest in technology at their disposal. It brings out the competitive nature in me to try and best them, but alas it is not meant to be. I just don't have the large amounts of discretionary income that others have. I would have to purchase things I want now on credit. I also have to convince myself over a period of a couple of months that something is worth purchasing now. There are larger expense that must be taken care of before I can splurge on something that I want.

There are others like myself that are in more dire need of money, but they cannot seem to be able to control their expenses. They live paycheck to paycheck and never have enough money to be able to dig themselves out of the debt hole. Most aren't aware of the little changes that they can make to prevent them from splurging, such as never going into a store without a list and thinking about a potential purchase for a day or two before buying.But I really think that the key to delaying gratification is awareness of it in the first place, once people are aware that they are spending based on an emotional decision rather than a logical one, people can change their spending habits. Although, I have simplified this to one key reason, there might be several reasons why people spend or want instant gratification. They are mostly psychological and vary from person to person and thus depends on each individual.

Ultimately, I believe that we need to lessen our over reliance on things to make us happy. Happiness should come from internal content and not external material goods. Temporary pleasure is no substitute for long-term happiness and contentment in life.

Stay gratified my friends...

Technology making us dumb?

I have always wondering if the world of today is better than the world of yesterday. The influx of technology has greatly influenced our lives but we live in a world that is so connected and accessible that we are losing independent thought. We have now come to rely on technology so much that I fear we starting to lose our curiousness in obtaining information.

In a certain light, I miss the old days, everything was a bit slowly than today. Maybe it is because of more responsibility and less time to have fun but back in the old days (1990's) the lifestyle was just slower. I like the fact that we had to go to the library to do research and that was one of the dominate ways to find information, unlike today where get the answer to anything with a single click, it loses some of its value. I mean if we traveled a couple of miles and dug around for an hour or two for the answer you inherently value the information more than if it was more easily accessible. We have lost value in the discovery of information but gained speed in obtaining it.

One of the great joys in life for me is figuring out how things work, whether it be mechanical, societal, or psychological. But it takes a lot of time and we need to observe it, study it, and create a hypothesis on it. That usually requires a lot of effort, an effort that we are less and less likely to go through, at least formally. The easier way is to search for it online somewhere and that is mostly likely as much effort we are likely to put in. There are many people of our generation including myself that rely on the internet way too much and use it as a crutch as if, there are no other way to do things without going online. I am not saying that we should ban the net or stop people from googling, but I think we should stop ourselves first and figure out if we can do it ourselves before consulting master google.

It really helps us in the long run if we can problem solve and figure things out independently before we go for the quick answer. It makes us value the process of obtaining that knowledge and it will help us remember it better as well. I see too many people pull out their calculators for easy calculations (I am talking about 10*30=300). People's mind just default to using a calculator when they find a math problem and don't even realize how easy it is just to do it yourself. Math is one of the easiest things to forget when you haven't done it for a while. It is a bit sad and tragic that all it takes is a minute and a pencil and paper to figure it out, we do need technology for something that simple unless you have an excel sheet size project.

While the world is easier with technology we have to be very careful with how we interact with it on a daily basis. We can too easily rely on it for everything and not understand what we are losing in the process. As a heavy tech user myself, I have to stop myself sometimes and realize that I can figure things out myself rather than just googling the answer.

Discover the wonders of your own brain and google less my friends! :)

Entitlement R US

I believe in hard work. One of the greatest things that I learned from my parents is that with enough hard work you can get anything you want. They always told me that if I worked hard enough that life would be easier. I grew up knowing that working would bring me closer to being financially free. So I did. Worked my ass off in school and focused on both hard and soft skills to bring me closer to my goals. I knew that nobody was going to help me and so I did it myself. So when I meet someone that does not want to work hard and expects the whole world to give them a handout, I naturally have issues with that.

There have been many clamoring that this is the entitlement generation, where all of the Gen Y'ers are all mooches and that we have been completely spoiled by their parents. I tend to agree with that statement on a whole. Of course there are exceptions to each rule and there are a couple of outstanding individuals, but from my experience people from my generation are not as hard working as they could be. I rarely if ever hear some say "I'll just work harder next time," they just drop whatever they are doing and move on to the next thing that excites them.

I think my peers just do not value work for what it truly is and that is to make life meaningful. It is viewed as nothing more than a way to make money to do other "funnier" things. I believe that if we are dedicating our time and energy into something like a degree, it might as well provide both some enjoyment for the career you are going into. I have a twisted view when it comes to working, I like it! I mean I really like what I am doing each day, I feel a great sense of doing something for the greater good of all. I help make satellites that provide TV, radio, and internet to all that pay a fee to their subscribers, how can that be bad? It is certainly better than building weapons and bombs.

The point is, I am frustrated at those who just don't care about the work and just want to coast by. It makes people like me feel invalided because all that hard work that went into getting where I am now, is not being taken seriously by others and that is not okay. It is a tremendous chip on my shoulder to go through life working for everything only to see others get handed things that is undeserving. I've seen it all my life and I am sick of it.

There is no master conclusion or ending theme. It just is.

20-Somethings

I like to start hopefully an important thread in this blog that is near and dear to me. On the way towards perpetually growth and its subsequent unleashing, we have a lot of time in between. I want to begin to explore my world of 20-somethings a bit more, specifically the life, times, and struggles of 20 year olds.

I have been think a lot about my purpose in life and what that means to me. The only places I can start to look are from my peers and what they are doing with their lives. HBO's Girls probably would most accurately exemplify the struggles and hardship of our generation. It is quite interesting to watch people that are in their 20's try to define their lives and careers while working to make ends meet. Although they are not my real peers, I feel their struggles are certainly related-able, albeit in a different city and opposite gender.

It is tough for any person of my age and experience (or lack thereof) to know what they truly want out of life. For those that have found what they are looking for and are chasing their dream, I applaud you and wish you luck. Those like myself that still have many more questions than answers at this point, I say, time is still on our side and we have a bit more time to solve them. Others that are still searching for what they want to do in their lives, I can offer them some  advice to never quit reaching for their goals. 

It is my hope that this post and the future posts about this subject of 20-somethings will be as  amusing as well as inspirational to many. Your future is not written in stone, until you decide it is.

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